North Dakota State President Resigns Amid Rancor

Submitted by Doug Lederman on October 15, 2009 - 3:00am

Saying that controversies over his compensation and home renovation had "created distractions that have made it impossible for me to provide the leadership this institution deserves." Joseph A. Chapman announced his resignation[1] as president of North Dakota State University on Wednesday. Chapman, who has been the university's president since 1999, oversaw significant growth and expansion at the university, which some officials there believed opened him to jealousy-fueled criticisms. But a series of controversies over perceived abuse of his position have led to accusations of arrogance, leading an opinion making newspaper, the Grand Forks Herald, in an editorial[2] about Chapman's "blind spot," to opine that he "acts as if the usual rules pertaining to public officials in North Dakota don’t apply."